52 Table of Contents Pages Welcome 2

Alcohol ... Sara Felix 3

Iroshizuku Take- Sumi Ink 5 for Instance... James Bacon

Enabler.... John Dodd 7

In Praise of Doodling.... Helen Montgomery 11

Harvest Moon... Ann Gry 14

Envelope Art... Marguerite Smith 16

A Southpaws Guide to ... John Vaughan 17

The Ink Stuff I have been doing... Chris Garcia 24

Pen Dragon... Rhonda Eudaly 26

Thank you for the art that was provided for this issue. Chris Garcia, Sara Felix, Ann Gry, Vanessa Applegate, Helen Montgomery, and Marguerite Smith and all the lovely picture of pens and mail from John Dodd, James Bacon, Ann Gry and John Vaughan. Welcome

Ink. Versatile memory sharing art medium. I’m very grateful to all our contributors here they gave us time during this tricky year and it’s lovely to see Welcome to this issue of journey planet. such wonderfulness. Chris and I are especially thankful to Sara for coming on board to co-edit this issue we are I’m really so pleased that Sara Felix came onboard to so impressed with the wonderful layout the extensive co-edit this issue which looks at ink. use of art and also helping us to find and solicit such great pieces of work. Sara is an incredible force in I’ve loved Sara’s artwork over the years and as her fandom, especially so when it comes to the promotion own work in ink developed and then Chris also of artists, running the Chesley awards her own work started to use ink as an artistic medium I realised that being recognised as a Hugo finalist and when she’s there is an incredible bond between these fluids that asked to make incredible awards we are very lucky and become permanent on and our experiences and grateful to have such a versatile artist give their time to memories of the now. Ink can be incredibly joyous this fanzine. and beautiful incredibly artistic and then in a sense I probably end up using it for a very normal things, We’d love to hear from you, as you read or enjoy this sending thanks, well wishes or just catching up. fanzine, know you’re not alone, at any stage if you would like to contribute and be part of this wonderful I find myself writing much more than I anticipated ongoing fun endeavour that is Journey Planet please this year, sending much more post some of which is do contact us and we’ll be happy to tell you what just to keep in touch, some of which is in response themes are upcoming if you wanted to contribute. Do to incredible kindness, post this year has become so not ever feel that you’ve missed an issue or a chance to much more important, could I have a long list now of contribute we can always find space referring back and all the things that I did not anticipate arriving which also so things we love do recur. I’ve turned up, it’s been absolutely amazing to see si-finds so willing to share and I work really hard to Email [email protected] reciprocate. Please now enjoy this fanzine and once again we’d love My letters are adorned with thanks to the Royal Mail, to hear from you, An Post, the USPS with an added tag line of ‘...in gloom if night....’ as I watched on and saw that service James dreadfully undermined in an act of anti-democracy.

I’ve used ink to create rainbows, anavar so started my own decorated envelopes which I describe as ‘soiled ink art’.

2 AlcoholBy Sara ink Felix

This feels a bit daunting, where to start? Hi, I am Sara My work in this medium has been a lesson in letting and I am an artist. And that is why I was brought on to go. A really valuable lesson that has especially helped guest edit this issue, oh that and I love ink…. flowing, me in 2020 and with my art in general. Not trying vibrant ink. I am an artist who works in a lot in ink. to control all aspects of my life has been a very very Abstract, spacey ink. Bold colors and big puddles helpful skill. I am not a neat, precise artist. And of ink. Blowing ink around on the page using blow with my kids I have short bursts of time that I can dryers and straws and canned air then layering more focus. I have a hard time drawing small details and ink with brushes on top of that. There are plenty of for me the fun is the sweeping colors in a piece. I don’t artists who use ink in a controlled manner but for me have to be fussy about how the color moves or how ink is a medium where the release of control is what the straw blows it around. I can put it on the page in makes it so satisfying. I let the ink do what it wants the general placement that I would like and it reacts because ultimately it does. The ink does what it wants differently to other almost every time. So I have and I get to admire its beauty. no preconceived ideas of what a piece will look like when it is done. Did you ever do that project in school with markers and coffee filters? Or sharpies and alcohol to make tie At first there is a puddle of ink on the page, maybe dye? multiple puddles that start to move slowly outward. Then the ink is blown or the paper starts to tilt and the Growing up I was always fascinated by ink starts to separate into different colors and that is chromatography, the separation of mixtures into its when the piece really starts to get interesting. Adding individual components. Alcohol inks are a blend of more alcohol the colors tend to bleed and change and pigments and dyes that separate and dry at different within that I see a universe or a pattern that the piece rates and that mixture of components is what makes is based on. There are moments in each piece where some colors more interesting than others. Blacks bleed I find it awful and think it can’t be saved. But more into greens and purples and blues. Some greens have a manipulation of the colors on the page and then the lot of yellow, blues and purples have pinks that create final piece emerges and colors move and details are halos of color. And there are the metallics. One of my added. favorites….a sheen of copper overlaid on a background of blue from the dyes and particles in my favorite My art is truly mixed media with alcohol ink, acrylic color Blue Raven Bronze. Each ink reacts differently inks, acrylic paints, spray paint, glitter, and sometime making each piece unique. topped off with resin. The building of the layers is what makes a piece have a depth and more interest than just

3 one layer of color. Like many artists I have a bit of imposter syndrome. I don’t paint beautiful landscapes or create intricate And now I have added spin art to the mix. The kids illustrations. I blow ink around. I let it run together art toy has become a favorite of mine. There is some and separate into other colors. And I embellish the method to the spinning as the speed controls how the colors and find a beauty in that process. When a piece ink flows outward but you never really know what the works it brings a happiness to my heart that makes it ink will look like until you completely stop the wheel. all worth it.

Alcohol ink, acrylic, and watercolor resist

Texture paste, acrylic, and alcohol ink

4 Iroshizuku Take-Sumi ink for instance. My Favorite. By James Bacon

Early March 2020 and I am looking at my ink bottle No problem, I reach to the other box. I open it. An as it goes down. I love how it goes clear and the ink empty clean bottle. I worry. You see, this is what I do, I lowers and so one can see that soon it is time to replace keep them for future just in case, and indeed, in the lid it. This is no problem, I have two silver boxes in my I have noted who I was with, or where they came from desk. I was in Broomfields in Boston, my usual source and in some cases who gifted them to me. but availed of other things, because I had those boxes in my desk. There is an older slightly used Box, and so I pick that up, maybe this is the one, nope. Mid March. Things have been going odd in the Another Empty Bottle. World for some time now, and I need to consider consolidating living arrangements and making a move The Box I have been using then, could well be 3 bottles perhaps in support of those more vulnerable to me. ago, although I think I have used more, because I know I am writing letters, more than usual, but wanting to I have been using it for nearly 6 years now. And that personally connect with friends and fans, as I know ties in with when I got my Mont Blanc 146. how, and I know how much joy a letter, card, and in this instance, some comics are. I am settling things and I usually am very dismissive of products that say they open the drawer, I see a nice silver new box, and do something wondeful, and I had been an exponent open it and there is an empty bottle in it. and have written before about my love for Jonhao’s especially as a great for $5 or less. Now when I got Of course. I keep the Iroshizuku bottles, they are a my second hand 1982 Mont Blanc 146, I happened lovely bottle, very high quality and nice looking, an to be in Boston not long after, and I had heard about oval shape to look down on, so nicely shaped and also Iroshizuku and dismissed in. My waterman, parker, have a coned lower depression part that allows one to and Inks were fine… get the nib in deeper, just in the middle. I asked Linda Wenzelburger to make me some Dublin 2019 ink, Then I got a bottle. I realised that like my Mont Blanc and I cleaned off a bottle and badged up bottle and there are some standards that are worth paying more box accordingly with the Dublin 2019 logo’s. This was for. $26 at the time, which was about 3 times the cost charming and I loved it, until the bottle went astray, of any other ink. likely taken by a decent person who thought it was available as I was in fairness giving away fountain pens, But why. all mostl green and stationary, also green. When I purchased the ink first, as it is an expensive

5 Ink I was in Boston, and the sales lady, whom I trust, My ink of choice, Take-Sumi is black. Now Take could said that there were additives to the ink, that helped be Bamboo, and Sumi can mean ink, well painters it flow. At nearly the same time, I was also put onto ink, I think and there could be a conection to Bamboo a new Paper - Claire Fontaine Triomphie, which I Charcol. ALegedly. was assured would not bleed. And so at $10 a sheaf, I was buying expensive ink and paper for my cheaply Anyhow. It is just so lovely in the pen. There is a purchased very expensive pen. consistently nice and high flow rate and with the MB nib, it feels like a dream. I tested this by doing a clean say ‘Draw your inspiration from Nature’s breath out and using Mont Blanc ink, and there just was no and allow iroshizuku inks to take you on a poetic comparison. And this is true of a number of MB inks I journey. A veritable ode to Japanese landscapes and have purchased, they are lovely, but the flow does not homage to the art of writing.’ compare. With my Conway Stewart 28, it flows heavy, ‘Iroshizuku inks are available in 24 sublime shades but even wet, it holds strongy on Triomphie, and I love opening a door to a world of infinite refinement. The it for that. The nib feels so smooth. For years now I name “iroshizuku” is a combination of the Japanese have been using it, and there has been no clogging or words “iro” (colouring) expressing high standards and issues. It will bleed through on most paper, and there variation of colours, and “shizuku” (droplet), which can be feathering, which I spent a lot of time avoiding, embodies the very image of dripping water. Each but with finer nibs and a lighter hand, it is lovely on ink name derives from the expressions of beautiful most . Japanese natural landscapes and plants, all of which contribute to the depth of each individual hue. Enjoy Consistently I get good service from this combo. ’s rich and subtle colour aesthetic as you write. And thanks to some research and support from the Each beautifully presented bottle offers an opulent and Sheffield Hallam Print shop, I have headed paper that luxurious edge to your creative and everyday writing.’ it is fine with.

Sounds fab. Although I note, no mention of magic So, I looked online, pondered getting post at this time, lubricating type ingredients. The tranalations include and decided to buy online and locally in the UK from ‘Sunset’ ‘Moonlit Night’ and ‘Morning Glory’. a decent ink and pen shop and so, I had some. A lovely ink. ENABLERBy John Dodd

I was thirty eight when I first gave away a pen, it’s been way they should. As much as I love fountain pens, I eight years since that day, and to date, I’ve now given understand that they’re not as constantly reliable as away more than two hundred more pens… many more sophisticated pens, although that’s a part of what I love about them. When you’re using something Why? that might not be a hundred percent reliable, it’s a choice you make, rather than going for the thing that Because I love to write, and as with anyone who enjoys might be the better tool for what you’re doing. I know something, you enthuse about the things that you my space pen is far more reliable than the love, and you find likeminded people to share that I use every day, but I also know that the space pen gets enjoyment with. When it came to pens and writing far less paper time than the fountain pen despite that… though, I took a different path. I let the person write with all the different pens, and The first pen I gave away was a Jinhao, and that’s a I noticed that they liked the Jinhao far more than the name that’s likely to come up quite a bit in this piece, others. The thought occurred, as with many people because they’re pens that look expensive, whilst really who use fountain pens, I had a wide variety of them, not being expensive at all. I remember the day well, I most of them cheap and cheerful, workman pens, was running a convention (which is what I do when and here was someone who didn’t have a pen, but was I’m not writing), and someone asked about the pens I enjoying writing with them. was carrying with me. So, I gave them the pen… A brief aside here, I’m a writer, and I believe in the adage of always carrying pen and paper with me just Total cost to brighten someone’s day? About a quid… in case an idea comes to me and I have to note it down. That day I had a Rhodia notepad with me, the Well worth it… aforementioned Jinhao X750, a Pilot Metropolitan, and a Sport. The following day, I ordered a replacement pen and thought nothing more of it. The question was, why so many pens? Next convention, I got asked about the pens again, this My answer, because when you’re dealing with fountain time I ended up giving away the replacement Jinhao pens, it’s often better to have several pens available and the Wing Sung that was next to it. just in case there’s a problem and they don’t write the

7 And restocked that women tend to prefer pens that are heavier and thicker in the barrel, with wider nibs that allow the Next convention, it was the replacement Jinhao, the colours to show more on the page. Men, on the other replacement Wing Sung, and two more… hand, tend to like very light, often very narrow pens, and colour is a fine thing, as long as it’s Black. There And restocked are always exceptions, but watching the results tally up, the pattern very much becomes clearer. I should point out that I’m not rich, not by any shot, but the pens I give away are cheap, and weeks, months The first question is how the pen feels in the hand. later, I would see those people still using those pens, and usually they’d have another pen (or two, or three) Too light, too heavy, too broad, too narrow. with them. We’d talk about their new pens and the inks Many (more than eighty they were using, and they’d percent) will say that the curse me for getting them pen feels fine. into writing with fountain pens. I should point out that most of the people who’ve Enabler is the word had pens do have the very whispered about me when it English problem of being comes to pens… overly polite about the pens they’re using, not And I’m alright with that… understanding that I don’t care if they like a pen or After a year, I’d started to get not, what I need is the truth the idea that people liked of it. different sorts of pens, and so I widened the variety of And so, I always have pens I took to conventions. several pens standing by, People liked different colours in fact, the testing kit looks of inks, so I started widening like this at the moment… the variety of inks I took to conventions. It hadn’t (and yes, I’m also a gamer, started as an intention to give but dice are only given away pens away, but it was rapidly in full sets, to new gamers, becoming one, and with it Testing Kit and they don’t get to choose came a bit of a study. There were patterns in the types like this…) of pens that people liked using, patterns in the inks they liked, the colours they preferred, the paper they As an example, I start them with the Jinhao X750 liked to use. (Right hand side, number 2), and they think it’s too heavy. The next two pens to be picked out are the I started noting down which pens people liked, for my Wing Sung 3008 (Right side, number 7), and the own curiosity than anything else, and the process I Jinhao 991 (Right side, number 4) because they’re the used to see what sort of pen they liked was simple. lightest pens in the set. If they’re too light, we move to the aluminium (Left side, number 8) and the Start with the most popular pen for their gender, then Pilot Metro (Right side, number 3) and so on, till we’ve work through the different variations. judged the weight of the pen that they like to use.

That may seem strange, but bear with me on this, over At this point, it’s all about the weight of the pen, paper the course of the last eight years, I’ve seen a pattern has not been brought out yet, it’s literally how the 8 pen feels in the hand, before nib even gets exposed to In terms of nib widths that have been handed out, my the air. Putting the pen in the hand and seeing how data is as follows. the balance of it feels can sway the decision before anything else gets brought into it.

Then we check the feel of the pen on the fingers when it comes to writing. Whether the person likes a triangular grip, a circular grip, wide or narrow, rubber, plastic, metal, the list goes on. What I’m looking for here is that they’re happy with how the pen feels when they’re putting it to the paper. If the fingers move well on the pen, if it sits right in the hand, if it gives them impetus to put it to paper or not… The differences between nibs can be quite extreme, particularly as nibs come in several different sizes, and there are differences between Japanese nibs and European ones, as evidenced below. The Kaweco, Bock, and nibs are all European, the Pilot, Twsbi, and Sailor nibs are all Japanese. By and large, a Japanese nib will be thinner compared to a European nib of the same size class (as evidenced clearly by the difference between the Kaweco vs the Sailor, and the Lamy vs the Pilot.), most people find EF nibs too scratchy on the page, but there is a marked drop off as the nib becomes less of a pen and more of a felt tip (as evidenced by the particularly wet Lamy Nib there…) It’s not always possible to marry up the barrel and the nib, but even when I don’t have the right combination, I know that there’s going to be a pen out there with that particular combination. I just work with the tools that I have.

Then we see which nib they prefer, going back across the different pens to see how they feel on the paper, then on different paper, because writing on paper designed for fountain pens is a glorious thing, but it becomes utterly different when you find yourself writing on paper that sucks all the ink straight out of your pen and onto the page in one large blot… Some pens (the Hero at the bottom of the image for example) are very much easier to use because of the way they work, the nib being double sided and flat, rather than leading in from the feed on the pen, allowing the pen to be used at any angle and as a result making it similar in use to a ballpoint or rollerball.

9 And when all of this is done, we move on to Ink, restocking history, from the point at which I started because a part of the whole fountain pen experience counting. I haven’t included all the pens for which is in the wide variety of inks that are available to write only one was given away (mostly because those were with. I only carry the basics with me when I travel gifts, rather than giving pens to strangers), and I (A blue, A black, a red, a green, and through long haven’t included all the pens that I never replaced. experience of what people like, a purple), but to put perspective in the choices of inks, here are just the Diamine inks I have at home.

And when all this is done, and the person testing all the pens finally has the pen that they like the most, invariably they ask me what pen it is, so that they can find one themselves. My response is always.

“But that’s not my pen, that’s yours…” Of the top pens, the 992, 991, and 698 were popular across both genders, but the 3008’s all went to men, I do not accept payment, I ask that people pay it who said the X750s were too heavy, and the X750’s all forwards, for I do believe that handwriting as an art, as went to women, who said that the 3008’s lacked good a practiced skill, is dying out. Once a required subject, balance on them. it’s now an antiquated practice that is now lost to many and that is not taught in schools as much as it once X750 – Most popular pen for Women was. After all, I can write at fifteen to twenty words a minute, more if I take no care in it, but I can type at Jinhao 3008 – Most popular pen for men more than a hundred words a minute and correct them on the fly as I do. If you see me at a convention and you’ve got a pen, come talk to me about them, I always enjoy talking In terms of business use, there is no question as to about writing and the act of pen to paper. If you see which is the faster and more efficient way of doing me at a convention and you haven’t got a pen, come things. But something is lost when the individuality talk to me about them, there’s every chance you’ll leave of the person writing is not shown upon the page, you with a new pen in hand and likely some ink on your cannot tell if the person was happy or sad from the fingers… inflection on the page, from the angle of the writing upon the page, from the way they wrote their letters But be wary, I’ll never apologise if you end up buying upon the page. But that’s graphology, something I many more after we’re done talking… could write about for equal numbers of years. And for all those curious, the numbers from my 10 In Praise ofBy HelenDoodling Montgomery

I forgot how to doodle. different doodles. It was soothing and repetitive and helped me focus on what I was hearing as opposed to Weird, right? I hadn’t even realized it had happened daydreaming and no longer listening. I created some until the internet pointed it out. I was browsing beautiful images that made me smile. around and came across an artist by the name of Alisa Burke, who was offering a class called “Doodle It Out”. In my first jobs, I would often doodle while on the Basically, she provides 30 doodling prompts and tips. phone. The notepad I was using. The big deskpad calendar. Covered in doodles. I had to be careful “Why would anyone need a doodling class?” thought though – there were forms I would fill out, and those I. Yet as I watched the ad, I realized that I had, in fact, couldn’t be doodled on. Wouldn’t be professional. I fallen out of the habit of doodling. I had forgotten. clearly started reining in the doodling, being more How had this happened? conscious of it.

As a kid I was always doodling. Friends and I would But wait! Back to school now! I went back for my write and pass notes in class, and there were doodles Masters Degree in Social Work, and suddenly the galore on all of them. Later in school there would be options for doodling were wide open again! But no. doodles all over my notebooks. I remember in college Now I was working again, so the doodling had to slow discovering the duo markers – one end was down. I couldn’t doodle on a patient’s assessment form, a basic felt tip, -esque, and the other a brush- or in their chart. I could (and did) doodle all the time style tip. Those markers went everywhere with me. My on my deskpad calendar though. notes in college classes were over-the-top colorful, as I would use different colors for the actual note taking, Ah…there’s the change now. Electronics. Technology. plus the doodles in the margins. I had a sketchbook Suddenly I was using the a lot more often. that I would fill with random doodles. If there was a Hard to doodle on a screen with your keyboard. Fewer piece of paper I was writing on, odds were good there phone calls, more emails. Taking notes on a computer were doodles. instead of in a notebook. Ah…smart phones. Now I’m checking Facebook or playing a game on my mobile I’ve always been more of an abstract doodler. phone when I’m on hold on the desk phone. Occasionally things like flowers, but mostly shapes and patterns were my thing. Swoops and spirals and The years went by, and I forgot. flames and circles and triangles. Draw a big scribble of shape and then fill in the smaller sections with After seeing the ad for Alisa’s class, I started looking

11 for doodles. On my desk are two notebooks. One from Dublin 2019: An Irish Worldcon and the other for the Chicago in 2022 Worldcon Bid. Filled with notes from meetings in-person and virtual. Unless asterisks and checkmarks and the occasional swoopy arrow connecting two ideas, not a doodle in sight.

Unacceptable.

Yes, I signed up for the Doodle It Out class. I’m loving it – playing with new pens to see what kind of marks they make and so many familiar, but temporarily forgotten, patterns. Listening to music or podcasts while covering pages in marks and swoops. Circles and spirals and rectangles. My old college favorite of a scribble with different doodles in each section. They’re all back, and new ideas as well.

I’m currently using 6” x 9” watercolor paper and Faber- Castell Pitt Artist Pens in Black and Sepia.

I’m still not doodling spontaneously yet. It’s a much more mindful exercise currently, but I hope that my notebooks will soon start to show signs of doodling run amok. It makes my brain happier.

12

Photos of soviet-time nibs and pens

15 EnvelopeBy Marguerite Art Smith A Southpaws ByGuide John Vaughan to Pens

Filmmaker, screenwriter and fountain pen fanatic John skipping(unless it’s nearly completely empty) and no Vaughan gives us a brief rundown on his personal feedback. And unlike fountain pens, if you lose it, it’s a choice of top ten pens! case of just going into the nearest large supermarket or office supply store and picking another one up. I have not used a since the summer of 1987! I was fourteen years old when I bought my first fountain pen, a cheap Oxford, and discovered 9. PILOT Metropolitan. for the first time that the very act of handwriting was not a dull repetitive chore but an art in itself (an even The cheapest fountain pen on this list at not even $20 more interesting experience since I am left handed and yet for its price it is surprisingly substantial even and learned a very distinctive handwriting technique coming with a squeeze converter for ink.(There are far in order not to smudge the ink) and I have never more expensive pens out there that you have to pay looked back since. The first draft of every screenplay extra just for the converter.) Nib sizes can be ordered or story I have ever written (including this article) I from fine to a stub and the writing experience? Let’s write in longhand. Why? Because writing it before just say I wish this is the pen I had in school. typing it makes me as a writer consider my words more carefully. If it doesn’t work as the pen spills the ink onto the page, it most certainly won’t be any better 8. Italix Churchman’s Prescriptor. when I type it out. Over the years I have used Sheaffers and Parkers, Crosses and Lamys and even Jinhaos This is available from only one supplier (Mr.Pen) from , all in the search for the pen that offers the All metal with an architect’s nib, this is the heaviest most comfortable writing experience. That search and pen I have and yet a joy to use, thanks to its unique obsession will probably never end. However here are posting system. A lip secures the cap so tightly that the ten pens that I currently use day to day. once on it’s never going to fall off and which balances the pen in your hand. The nib ensures a beautiful, 10. Tikky Graphic. ( 0.7, 0.5, 0.3) constant wet flow to the paper perfect to use with print and and let’s face it, a very handsome “Hang on!” I hear you cry, this isn’t a fountain pen, looking pen that makes the statement “Take away your this is an art pen and not even an expensive one at ballpoints and your felt tips! I use Fountain pens!” and that!” and you’d be right. I started using these pens sometimes that’s all you want. while studying art in school about the same time as I brought that Oxford, but as writing experiences go, this is a pleasure with a constant feed of ink, no

17 7. Waterman Perspective. 4. Waterman Expert.

A Waterman was my first proper “grown up” pen, no What I like to call my dialog pen, as I write all dialog more just buying the pen in a box and hoping for the with this in a rich green ink. (The ink of spies. The best. This was the first time I went into a specialist legend is, as a tradition, all signed documents by the pen shop and was asked to try the pen out before I head of British Intelligence are done in green ink.) It’s bought it. Eleven years ago, myself and my wife went to the classic fountain pen cigar design, perfect for use Normandy and on the last day there my wife decided either posted or unposted and a superb writer. Again, since we were in , the home of Waterman, she if you are interested in starting to use fountain pens would buy me a new pen. She discovered two things and want quality at an affordable price, this is the that day. First, in Normandy you buy a good pen at the perfect model to start with. bookshop (which makes perfect sense) and secondly, the Waterman Perspective. A beautiful looking pen whose lines evoke the height of the art deco era and a 3 Waterman Carene. superb writer right out of the box. The last of my three Waterman pens. This stands out for its unusual inlaid nib design (made from rhodium 6. Lamy Scala. plated 18 carat gold). The Carene is not a cheap pen but what you pay in price, you get back in quality. Just outside my top five is the Lamy Scala. Not much Posted or unposted, a beautiful writing experience to say about the Scala because it is simply an excellent that almost (and I emphasize the almost) equals my writer. I have had this six years and it has yet to fail me. number one choice. Its design is simple yet stylish, it posts well and is not too big in the hand while it’s levered clip system is both aesthetically pleasing and practical at the same time. 2. Faber-Castell e-motion Stealth. If I was giving someone their first fountain pen but wanted to make it a bit special, this is a good place to My spy pen. A mixture of style and substance, the start. e-motion stealth stands out because of its all black design. It looks like something Napoleon Solo would have used in The Man From U.N.C.L.E.(Even the clip 5. TWSBI Diamond 580 AL. looks cooler due to the fact it has a set of teeth sawed into it.) It’s heavy, due to the fact it’s all metal, so you The perfect everyday pen from . Superior to may prefer to use this one unposted if you are writing their legendarily cheap Chinese rivals Jinhao and Hero. for any length of time but then again writing with it is Yes, they are made of plastic (looking like a reinforced a pleasure. A quick side story, just before Christmas translucent Bic) and have a reputation for cracking about three years ago, I dropped the pen and damaged hence why I went with the slightly more expensive (€5) the nib. I rang Faber-Castell to find out where I could aluminium reinforced model to prevent such mishaps get it replaced. They gave me a list of shops and dealers and all I can say is for the price...bloody hell! Writing online and wished me luck. After spending Christmas with this is buttery smooth. The pen glides over the with my in-laws, we returned home to find the post page with little to no feedback, and it even comes with had arrived and in it, a parcel containing a new nib its own maintenance kit. The only complaint is posting. free of charge from Faber-Castell with a note wishing Yes, the pen is designed so the cap posts, but the result me a happy new year and the message “Try not to drop is so large and top heavy it could become unwieldy. If this one!” you don’t post, the pen is on the large but comfortable side. Oh, and if you look at the photo, you will think to yourself “But John, you said it was translucent?” well it And, at Number One, it’s the.... is. That colour is the immense amount of ink the pen holds. I was so impressed, I bought a second one.

18 Meisterstück Platinum-Coated Classique. And that’s it. Those are my top ten pens. You might not agree and that’s alright because what may suit one I know what you’re thinking. You are paying for the person may not suit all, as in life so it is with pens but I name when it comes to Montblanc and I believed that do hope my little guide has helped you in someway in too until I tried it. In fact, I would never have owned advising your own choices. Now, if you will excuse me, one except my wife purchased it for me as a gift. This, I I have my eyes on a nice fountain pen, made think, is the perfect mix of quality, style and substance. from the volcanic lava of Mount Etna in and The pen uncapped or capped feels comfortable in the before you say “But surely you have enough pens?”, it’s hand thanks to its manufacture from a lightweight like I told you, it’s an obsession that will never end… resin. It feels when you hold it like the perfect size and probably! in looks screams classic. What about the writing ex- perience? Simply put, second to none. Like I said, the Carene comes close but writing with this even straight out of its packaging, has yet to find its equal in my book.

10. Rotring Tikky Graphic

9. PILOT Metropolitan

19 8. Italix Churchman’s Prescriptor

7. Waterman Perspective

20 6. Lamy Scala

5. TWSBI Diamond 580 AL

21 4. Waterman Expert

3 Waterman Carene

22 2. Faber-Castell e-motion Stealth

1. Montblanc Meisterstück Platinum-Coated Classique

23 The Ink StuffBy Chris I amGarcia doing

I am not an artist, so when I remembered that this but when I added a couple of drops of vodka, it was a issue was coming up, I decided to try and make some lovely light blue, the color of a transit system trim in a work for it. I love Pen Culture, from super-high-end high-class city. My brother-in-law gave me a dropper pens (see my other article) to ink stands (I have an bottle of ink that was a light red, so I was off to the awesome Stag’s Head one) to ink itself. races with 3 basic colors.

Oh no, I don’t like using ink! It’s so messy and typing is Now, as many folks know, I’m big into Abstract so much easier, but I love the concept and the artifacts. Expressionism, and especially into two artists - Helen Frankenthaler and Franz Kline. Frankenthaler did My loving wife Vanessa is an artist. She’s pretty dang paintings on unprimed canvas, which gave her work a phenomenal (and dang phenomenally pretty!) and one distinctive bleed effect. I figured getting that effect with say, I was at an estate sale, looking for old tech stuff ink would be much easier. and among the myriad old calculators, LP records, and 1970s kitsch was a large bag FULL of ink and pens. Just I was wrong. full of ‘em! I gave them to Vanessa, but she only had room for some of them in her kit, so I took a small box Since I was working on paper, there was bleed, not full of ink and a bunch of pens for my own, and tucked it wasn’t to the level that gave off the impression of a it into my closet. great spreading mass. Instead, it just made everything look muddied. So, when I remembered we were doing this issue, I pulled em out and started to work with the inks. Kline, on the other hand, was the perfect model.

Now, I can not draw. I have hands with stubby little Much of his work in the 1950s was concerned with sausage fingers with minimal dexterity, and 0 hand-eye zipping across the canvas with lines, through my coordination. That is a bad combo for arting. Still, I favorite, Figure 8 at the Anderson Collection at gave it my best shot. Stanford, works with swooshing circles. There was a certain glyph-like feel to much of his work, and I often The inks were from the 60s through the 80s, so some will fill pages of notebooks with nonsensical letters that of them I had to reconstitute. I started by adding a few seem to be trying to imitate language. drops of water, and then vodka to others. This thinned it out and actually allowed a bit of color to appear, So, I started with that idea, and did about 50 pieces even in the one labeled “Just Black” which ended up pretty quick. I’m also doing an issue of Claims kinda purple. The blue I had usually just looked black, Department about Abstract Expressionism, so I started

24 adding oils, gouache, and even tempera to many of the I’d place the paper towel on a work and the ink soaked works, but the ink ones, my gateway drug, were easily up by the sheet of Brawny was much more interesting my favorite because they had to be simpler, and there than the one on the page. was another reason. And thus, here are my works created for this issue of Paper towels. Journey Planet. I call this series Secondaries, Ink on Paper Towel. Now, when I would apply ink, I would often put it through newspaper of paper towels to give it a little textural effect. I’ve often put a page on top and squish them together to make an impression of the first page on the second, mostly to soak up extra ink. Sometimes,

25 Pen Dragon By Rhonda Eudaly

Pens and can be a relatively inexpensive (or trove (because I bought spares of some “collectible” not) habit depending on your tastes. I have always types for that purpose). I’m not gentle with them. loved all things ink and graphite ever since I was old They’re made to be useful. They’re made to do work. enough to hold one. To this day I have never figured And, for as much as I love that new pen and paper out which came first – my love of office supplies or my sensations? There’s equal satisfaction in a used-up pen, love of writing. Any excuse to buy a pen and paper, a stubby nub, or an empty ink reservoir. Because because what good a new pen without something to that means I did something with that pen. I created write on? Right? something – even if it’s crap words that day or my next published story. Whatever it is, I created it with that About 10 years ago – I had to go through my website pen. archive, and yeah, wow – I started reviewing pens and pencils on my website. At first it was to justify the pens Ink is also part of my psyche. I didn’t realize how I already had and then became the justification to get much as during the recent pandemic. I started out MORE. Not that I needed an excuse, because if I lost using multi-pens with classic black, blue, red, and all internet ability, I would keep buying them. But green – but mostly the blacks and blues – because my honesty, I’m not a collector, that’s my husband, Jimmy. day job had me running full bore and I needed to have He has a love of one specific (the everything at hand. But as we progressed, as I had P-200 series – specifically the P-205). Me? I’m time to deal with (or not) emotions, I found myself a Pen Dragon. I have my treasure trove of pens and gravitating to the brighter colors – pinks, greens, pencils, markers and highlighters. I love my pen trove purples – the more vibrant the better, like neon hues. Then I even shifted to inverses - white, gold and silver I have thinned out the trove once or twice. I always on black paper. Making with words bright and cheerful have good intentions where it comes to thinking I have in the gloom that surrounds us. “too many”. I have a plastic tote – medium sized – that overflows with writing instruments of all types, colors, I don’t know if it’s going to help in the long run, but I ink and lead varieties, and price points. A few of the am finding my creativity coming back bit by bit. I’m more expensive ones live outside the bin because, finding a little joy in seeing words on a page that I come on, I do care. don’t get composing on a keyboard. Is it because I have bright inks? Maybe not, but whatever it is, it’s part of Real collectors or pen snobs would be appalled by the journey. my trove. I’m a practical Pen Dragon. I use the pens I buy. There are very few “mint in package” pens in my

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